oscar wilde

be yourself, everyone else is already taken



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-oscar wilde

a boy of good breeding

i just finished an excellent book called a boy of good breeding by one of my favourite canadian authors miriam toews. it's set in algren, manitoba which i believe is a fictional town created for the purposes of this book.  in the book, algren's claim to fame is being the smallest town in canada: population: 1,500.  the story follows two main characters who are vaguely connected, knute and hosea.... interesting names.  knute is in her early twenties and has a four year old daughter named summer feelin. she moves back to algren to help out her parents after her father suffered a heart attack and is having a challenging recovery.  hosea is the mayor of algren and anyway... read the book to find out more about their interesting and unique stories. 

i think i need to take a trip to sonic boom.  all this reading has me out of touch with the world of music and i miss it.

can you tell i was good at writing book reports as a kid?

elephants

i've seen this piece of art, or maybe it's graffiti, a few times on keele street.  it's absolutely incredible.  i was finally able to get a picture of it today:

I meant what i said and i said what i meant. An elephant's faithful one-hundred percent!

- dr. seuss (horton hears a who!)

all families are psychotic

the original of this post was posted 2 weeks ago.  blogger "removed" it...  and after patiently waiting for it to be restored, [it hasn't been] i'm attempting to re-write it.  hopefully they won't "remove" aka delete it again...

i recently finished reading all families are psychotic by douglas coupland.  i should add a disclaimer: dear family members, this title is not meant to offend you in any way. i have been reading a lot of douglas coupland books lately.  i like his style of writing, it just flows well and keeps my imagination active.  in contrast to most of his novels i've read (set in vancouver) this one is primarily set in florida.  this induced many fond memories of family vacations in florida.  we usually drove down at the beginning of the summer and i recall experiencing a scorching heat like no other.  i have one particularly vivid memory of a young boy catching a sting ray, ripping out the stinger and throwing the poor thing back in the gulf.  i worried the bleeding ray would attract sharks and headed back to the pool.  i probably have enough floridian memories to write an entire book, and it holds a special place in my heart. 

anyway - back to the book - it's about a family (shocking!).  it tells the individual story of each family member.  at some points it seems far from reality but manages to remain very real.  i guess this is typical of his books.  they tend to have an aspect of fantasy which throws you for a fun little turn.  i enjoyed the book.  it was an easy and fun read that had me laughing and cringing at the same time.

cute

rooftop adventure

here is a photo i took in the annex, looking north on bloor.  it's not the greatest quality but i love the feeling of adventure and mystery it gives me.  also, the sky looks pretty.

who you are



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may misery

yep, that's right... may has been a miserable month.  if you're living in the greater toronto area, you know what i'm talking about....  the rain. rain. rain.  it won't stop!  i feel like i'm living in a rainforest without the forest. 

whatever happened to april showers bring may flowers?  it rained in april, and it's rained even more in may.  despite all my complaining, i don't mind the rain that much.  plus i spend most of my days inside - i take transit to work, and i sit at a desk all day.  in some ways the rain makes it easier to have to be inside.  but i'd prefer to be cozied up at home listening to the rain outside my window.

and then i think about the old adage, or maybe it's not an old adage but something i've heard somewhere: don't worry about what you can't control and then something else like you can only control the way you react.  but i don't know how to put them together in a sentence.  you get the point. 

and bob marley sums up the whole rain situation with this little quote:

Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.

bad moods

i have no idea who this author is, but i loved her quote:

You can only be in a bad mood for so long before you have to face up to the fact that it isn't a bad mood at all; it's just your sucky personality.

— Megan McCafferty

when you've had a bad day, the most challenging thing is to pull yourself out of it.  people who love and care about you might also try, but sometimes it just sticks.  and what is interesting about this is how a complete stranger's kindness can turn it around. 

as i was riding the subway home today, the platform was entirely full at my usual transfer spot (st. george).  as the train pulled in i hoped to get on, but figured my chances were slim.  i managed to find a comfortable spot near the door and as the door chimes went off, roughly 4 more people crammed their way on to an already full train.  anyone who has ridden the ttc knows this is a common occurrence... nothing out of the ordinary.  but what did happen [that was out of the ordinary] was one of the people who stuffed their way on asked me if i was okay.  this small gesture gave me a bit of hope, and my mood began to change.

once i got home i tidied up, cleaned the bathroom, cleaned the kitchen and before i knew it mike had arrived with a bag of sushi.  he knew i had a case of the mondays and wanted to cheer me up.  the sushi was from a new place in the junction called LAN sushi.  mike had suggested that if i tidied up a bit i would feel better, and he was right.  so here is the formula that i have developed:

kind stranger + clean apartment + nice guy = good mood

cute things help, also.

music

i've been recently introduced to some new bands.  first up angus and julia stone.  amy sent me a bunch of their songs, and here is my favourite of the ones i've heard so far:

the next song is from steph, it's called her morning elegance by oren lavie.  not only is it a beautiful song, the video is so cool!

sunday

it's raining and it's supposed to rain all week.  i'm p.o.'d at blogger for not restoring my post from wednesday when they were down for almost a whole day and they removed all posts to "try and fix the problem."  i would like my post back, please.  the draft is no longer with the rest of my posts and what i wrote has basically left my memory.

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safety first

check out the sweet new helmet my mom got for me - safety first!  the salesperson helped us out by suggesting the champagne colour when we couldn't decide.  tonight i added this octopus sticker designed by my best friend angie - click here to see her page stuck on the west coast. 

hot docs - vinyl

http://www.hotdocs.ca/film/title/vinyl

part of the reason i was wanted to live in toronto was to have access to the entertainment it has to offer.  more recently was the hot docs film festival.  there were many films and i had no idea how to choose.  i'm not saying i don't know how to sit at a computer and read names of documentaries with the corresponding descriptions, i didn't know how to pick.  spoiled for choice.  which may be the reason i've missed out on many events in toronto.  i don't know what to see, when to go or who to go with and before i know it, the whatever it is has come and gone.

i was getting ready for work in the morning, listening to the radio as i often do and that's when i heard about vinyl.  vinyl is a documentary that came out in 2000 about record collectors.  i was delighted to find out it was playing at the royal as a part of the hot docs festival.    for someone as indecisive as myself it was like winning the lottery.  i bought the tickets and that was it.  sometimes you have to bite the bullet.  (also, the tickets were $14 dollars and that isn't too hard of a bullet to bite)

the night started off with dinner at utopia which isn't too far from the theatre.  dinner was delicious and the film was fantastic.. [alliteration intended]... it was introduced by the director (and star) alan zweig.   i don't know how to describe the film and do it justice.  but i'll try.  alan himself is an obsessive record collector.  the film includes a series of interviews with record collectors, friends of alan's and strangers alike [including harvey pekar].  the interviews are seperated by some fairly dark, and also humourous confessions about his own collection and his life.  the confessions are filmed by pointing the video camera at a mirror.  the mirror is surrounded with items related to whatever he is talking about.  the other characters are varied, and so are his questions.  he has a way of getting people to show vulnerability on camera which i don't think is easy.

after the film he answered questions and left a box of records at the front of the stage for the audience to pick at.  i picked up an unfamiliar bruce cockburn album that i have yet to listen to.  on the way out i wanted to meet him.  i shook his hand and said i wanted to tell you that i really enjoyed the film. he took a look at the record in my hand and said let me see what you've got there, i showed him the album and his response was, meh.  at which point i laughed and felt a bit embarrased and mike and i left and walked home.

also of note: anytime i told someone i was seeing a hot doc they thought i was saying hot dog.  no confusion here though, right?

hiatus

image via

okay, some of you may be used to me posting every day... and may have noticed i've been on a bit of a hiatus.  it's not that i haven't wanted to write, it's just that i haven't had much to say.  in the almost 5 months i've been doing this i haven't had this problem.  the more that time passed between posts the less i was inclined to write.  well i'm back now, so deal with it.

genius

image found here

Everybody is a genius.  But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.

-Albert Einstein

friends

from this website





the diary of alicia keys

the diary of alicia keys was released in 2003.  at the time i was still into purchasing cd's... as it was before i had started collecting newer albums on vinyl and before i knew anything about itunes.  i am especially fond of the design on the actual cd:

and unlike other music that i was listening to in 2003, this album still finds itself in the mix of albums that i listen to regularly... which says a lot since my musical preferences are always changing. 



massey hall

this past saturday included my first trip to massey hall.  i was impressed.  we saw two acts there: the opening act was one of my favourite canadian artists: jill barber and the incredibly talented michael kaeshammer.  in between sets i waited in a busy crowd and was able to meet her and get this album signed and speak with her briefly.  i was over the moon. 

i had never really heard of michael kaeshammer before.  he was introduced as canada's harry connick jr. but i think he stands out on his own.  notably, the drummer was out of this world and the interaction between them made the show what it was.  the whole group was awesome to watch and listen to.  you can get an idea of what i mean from this video: